This week's persecuted church: Indonesia

Government actions have made little difference, citing a “urine attack.”

That attack in May involved a Muslim mob throwing plastic bags of urine and feces at members of the Batak Christian Churches in Bekasi, Indonesia.

“The Indonesian government seems indifferent to the rise in religious intolerance. Only a few days after the urine attack, the religious affairs minister for the country, Suryadhama Ali, claimed that Indonesia was ‘the most tolerant country in a world,’” Morgan said.

Morgan said there’s no in-depth information on the level of penetration of the Indonesian government by jihadi groups, but he says the number of violent incidents is increasing.

“I can tell you that we’ve seen a rash of incidents carried out in recent months by radical groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front against Christian churches,” Morgan said.

Morgan also cites a mid-June incident.

At that time, “an Indonesian official in Aceh, the same region where a huge terror cell was busted in 2010, ordered 20 Christian churches to be torn down by the congregations themselves,” Morgan said.

“So far the Christians have mostly ignored the order as far as we can tell, but we also have a report that one of the churches in Aceh was attacked by a large angry mob during its Sunday service,” Morgan said.

Thought of the Day:  Retreat
Song of the Day:  The Game-Hate It or Love It